Women Workers After World War 2 Summary

World War II was one of the maneuvers that capitalism has miraculously come up with in its history to escape great crisis—in this case, the economic crisis of the depression years [1929-1939], which followed the political tumult of World War I and the Russian revolution. During World War II, the defense industry expanded and Canadian men mobilized for military service. Many women found jobs previously unavailable to them in aircraft plants, shipyards, manufacturing companies, and the chemical, rubber, and metals factories producing war materials. These jobs paid higher salaries than those traditionally categorized as “women’s work,” such as teaching, domestic service, clerical work, nursing, and library science. When the government’s authorities

needed female labour force to support industries’ production they created all conditions, such as training and educating women, in order to ensure their employment. However, when the female labour force was no longer needed, government decided to infuse policies that supported woman’s withdraw from the labour market. Women faced unemployment and insecurity because government wanted to ensure “smooth transition” for the returning men.
In the article ‘’Balancing Equality for the Post-War Woman: Demobilizing Canada’s Women Workers After World Two’’ written by Jennifer A.

Stephen appears the dilemma of extreme inequality between male and female labour during the post-war time. When the World War II reached the victory thousands of Canadian men was coming from the fronts back home. The government wanted to ensure a smooth conversion of soldiers, who got used to continuous battle and everyday survival, to a peaceful society. At the same time women were serving the labour market, occupying both male and female jobs, in order to keep the economy functioning during the war. However, they were asked to make a way for coming back men. While men were receiving their employment, the rate of unemployed women was growing up. Therefore, it becomes clear that the main problem of employment after World War II is that the economic rehabilitation in post-war time lied in the mass elimination of women from the labour market. Basically saying women had to leave their work and return to domesticity in order to provide employment opportunities for men. This has violated equality rights and discriminated women from the labour

perspective.
In the article ''Postwar America: 1945–1971'' Howard Zinn listed a number of evidences that revealed discrimination towards female workforce.

World War II brought a lot of changes to nowadays society. During the war thousands of women entered the workforce in order to support their families, while their men were outside of the country. However, women were experiencing war at the home front. They were faced to industrial, military and civil jobs, along with raising children and supporting their families. Accordingly, equality rights and freedom of choice were guaranteed for women for the first time in history. However, after the war their hard labour was not acknowledge. Even though the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms prohibits employment violation based on gender, well-skilled females were “burden” for the economy because they created a highly competitive employment market for returning men. At that point, government saw female labour unnecessary. However, statistics presented in the article showed that the majority of women were willing to continue working. For example one of the surveys appeared that only 17 percent would wish to leave the workplace and get married, while 72 percent of females wanted to remain in paid employment or improve their current position at the labour market in order to support their family income. Thus, it becomes clearly that women were unwillingly leaving their jobs, hence subjected to unemployment and low status in

society.
Another important fact that George Frost Kennan pointed out in the “Memoirs 1925-1950” is that government was increasingly imposing domesticity as the main vocation for the woman during the post-war time. Terms like ‘career’ were relevant mostly to men. This forced women to precarious and low-skilled jobs. They were highly disadvantaged in terms of employment, receiving laundresses and charwomen positions. Women were directed into vocational training, which include such occupations as hotel and restaurant industries, dressmaking, hairdressing and so on. This way government monitored and controlled the state, as well as transited women to domestic work or to low-qualified jobs.
The problem of employment is especially interesting for me because it reminded me about my great grandmother, who lived in Eastern Europe during the World War II. While her husband was at war she had to work in the factory. In addition, she was sewing clothes during the night because she needed to provide her two children with food and essential necessities. On top of that, the bomb destroyed their house; therefore she had to manage another shelter for the children and herself. Her husband did not come back from the war so she was not able to leave the labour market because of the need to support her children. This is a story of one woman, who was dramatically affected by the war; however, there were thousands of women, who had been experiencing such difficulties.
To sum it up, Canadian women experienced the challenges during post-war time, such as employment inequality. The woman’s role was undervalued in post-war time. During the war period women were trained to work in unfeminine industries and perform all types of labour, starting from sewing clothes up to highly industrial jobs. The whole economy of the country was functioning due to the female’s labour force. However, later on government did not create any protecting legislations for women, leaving them exposed to unemployment and low-paid jobs. Moreover, it is critically important to acknowledge the misleading point of government’s imposing of domesticity. Women did not exist domesticity during the war. Woman still had to raise children, educate them and provide them with shelter and food. No one terminated these responsibilities during the war. On top of those, women were working full time due to the absence of men. Thus, the definition of women’s reentrance to domesticity is false because the majority of women never leave their responsibilities as mothers and caregivers. Therefore, it appears clearly that Canadian women, like men, played a tremendous role during the World War II, however it was less recognized because it was outside of the battlefield.

Works Cited
Jennifer A. Stephen “Balancing Equality for the Post-War Woman: Demobilizing Canada's
Women Workers After World War Two 1”
Howard Zinn “Postwar America: 1945–1971”

Kennan G. “Memoirs 1925-1950”